When you’re writing a resume, you’re not writing your autobiography. It is simply unnecessary to include every little detail of your employment history. What the resume should be is a marketing tool: a “sales brochure” about you. Their job is to get you a job interview. Therefore, it is important that you be careful about what inclusions on your resume, as well as what you choose to omit.
The following things should never be included in the vast majority of resumes:
1. Dates that indicate your age. Age discrimination is too obvious and can work against you. You can avoid showing your age by omitting the year of graduation and not including all of your work experience. Instead, include only the most recent and most relevant to the position. If the position requires a substantial amount of experience, it may be appropriate to disclose your age, but if you are unsure, avoid this issue.
2. Hobbies. The only time the list of hobbies may be relevant is if they specifically relate to your career choice. If you indicate that you have many interests, it may suggest that you can be distracted from your work. This space is more suitable for displaying your skills. There may be time in the interview to discuss hobbies – this is the best forum to show how well rounded you are as a person.
3. “References available upon request.” This is a waste of time as most job application forms will include a section where you can list your references. A better use of the space would be to discuss job specific information.
4. Generic and vague objectives. Goals like “…obtain a challenging position at (company name)” mean nothing to the recruiter. Instead, you should tailor the mission statement to the particular position, perhaps using a skills summary or professional summary.
5. Short-term jobs. Most employers will shy away from prospective employees who have had many short-term jobs, wanting someone who will last long enough to recoup the money spent on training. Do not include jobs you have only had for a few months. If you have completed multiple assignments with an agency, list the agency as the employer for each assignment. Hopefully, you’ll have a chance to list all of your employers when you fill out the job application and any issues can be addressed at the interview stage.
6. Grade point average. After a few years, the GPA loses its relevance. The exception to this are positions where education is emphasized. Even in this case, if you didn’t achieve a high GPA, don’t include it.
7. Omit any reference to your religion, gender, sexual preference, political party or anything else that could be construed as remotely controversial.
8. More experience than the job requires. If the job requires 5 years of experience, make sure the resume lists 5 years of experience. It would be a waste of space to list 20 years of experience, especially if most of it is irrelevant to the position. You can list additional experience, but only after you have listed the most relevant experience. If your resume gets long, get rid of “extra” job information that doesn’t relate to the specific position.
9. High school information. If you have college degrees, your high school degrees are not necessary. The only exception to this rule is if you attended a well-known or well-respected high school and mentioning your attendance could give you additional credibility. Be careful that this does not cause problems with the recruiter, who may not have attended the same school and may not share positive experiences with him. If you have not attended college, refer to this section as “Training” and list any job training or post-school qualifications you have obtained.
10. Anything negative. This is an obvious problem. Never, under any circumstances, include anything on your resume that could be construed as negative. Remember, the point of a resume is to get you a job interview, not to keep you from reaching that milestone.